Articles by " PORTALS"
Monthly Mixtape Series - February, 2013
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Tracklisting:
01. Lee — “—-t-t-r—-”
02. fthrsn — “My new friend”
03. R.L. Kelly — “Life’s A Bummer”
04. Fog Lake — “Farther Reaches”
05. Spectre Waltz ft. Jessica Blanchet — “Northbrook”
06. Ricky Eat Acid — “I can hear the heart breaking as one”
07. Salt Cathedral — “Take Me To The Sea”
08. Baba X — “Hold You Tight”
09. Gacha — “Far Red”
10. mancub — “The Birds Pt.2”
Local Scenes: Columbus, Ohio
In this edition of Local Scenes, Katie Pierce, founder of the Columbus Ohio based music blog Jack in the Pocket, shares music of hometown, the heart of the heartland.
When you hear of Columbus, Ohio, what comes to your mind? Football, cows… probably not much else, right? I’ve lived in this landlocked city in the center of our heart-shaped state for a little over 9 years now. I’m ashamed to admit, the first few years I spent in Columbus exclusively revolved around student life at The Ohio State University. I exercised my new found freedom through endless games of beer pong and going to as many concerts as possible. However, it was not until I moved away from the roar of the university district that I discovered Columbus’ passionate collaborative arts community. Resisting the urge to dive in was impossible. I began to blog, interviewing national acts that came through the capitol, and going to too many local shows to count. Now, I find myself interacting with some facet of our phenomenal music scene every single day.
Andrew Graham & Swarming branch first caught my attention when I saw him perform at Skully’s Music Diner in early 2011. The first few strains of “Take it easy on Kathy, at least she can dance” had me shuffling across the dance floor to its velvety grooves. I discovered Andrew Graham grew up not very far from my hometown in northeast Ohio, spending his days working the land and evenings teaching himself guitar. Refreshing abstract and insightful lyrics compliments his Dylan-esque swagger, giving his voice an even greater power while singing over complex syncopated rhythms. The Swarming Branch is comprised of a rotating pool of local musicians. Their debut album Good Word was released in 2010 via Mexican Summer. “The Sistine Twist” is a brand new track off of their new album, Classic Glass, set for release this May through Tonk Records.
Under the moniker Triangle Piece, Way Yes’ Glenn Davis dabbles in psyched out sampling quite different from the work of former Cbusers Monster Rally and RUMTUM . “Johnny” is the fourth track from The Man I Love, a blissed-out swim into the woozy waters of Davis’ favorite tunes and field recordings.
I had no idea We are the Mountains existed until a friend asked me to like their Facebook page a few weeks ago. I instantly fell for their lo-fi dream pop sounds, warm and reminiscent of bands like War on Drugs and Real Estate. Members Curtis Cole, Kyle Charles, Blake Anthony Miller, and Mark Warren Jacques have all played in various other projects throughout the years, but none quite as stunning as this. Their debut EP is now available to stream on Soundcloud.
The powerful electronic rock outfit, The Town Monster, has been one of Columbus’ favorite bands since their inception in 2008. Recently, they have undergone some major structural changes. Singer Nathan Photos and drummer Matt Grady now work as a two piece, a shift that has immensely refueled their creativity. This past winter they released New Life, their second full length album chock full of some seriously face melting tracks. “Assemblage” showcases the softer side of the monster, delicate, and dedicated.
I had never heard of Room & Board before we were booked to perform with them at “Local Love” CD102.5 FM’s Thursday night concert series. I browsed through their website before the show, and noted they had previously performed under the name of Honeymoon as well as rocking stages in NYC and Chicago. I was quite curious to hear them live… The threesome took the stage and instantaneously commanded the bar’s attention through their infectious new wave/indie-pop technique. Lead singer Jonathan Hape kicks and swings along with the impeccable bass licks of Nick Baker and precise hits of drummer Andy Foster. Their debut LP will be released this May.
The city had been buzzing about Psychic Wheels for months before I had the opportunity to see them open for QUILT last summer. A of couple songs into the set I found myself utterly enamored with their groovy psych-garage sound. I kept pestering drummer Adam Scoppa for links to their music and was rewarded in November when they released their debut EP, Sequined Mess. This January, I was asked to be their keyboardist. It’s impossible to express how thrilling it is to perform with this band. It was hard to pick, but I must claim “Magic Spells” as my favorite track from the EP. It is a wild one and a half minute ride.
You may live in a place you perceive as dull or boring with a seemingly non-existent music scene. However, I urge you to take a closer look. Support local bands, write about music, and if you can play an instrument, start creating. Good music is everywhere, even in the heart of the heartland.
Silk Screens: Blue Hawaii - “In Two”
Alex “Agor” Cowan of Blue Hawaii (recently announced on our PORTALSXSW 2013 lineup) dissects his band’s live set-up and details the studio-to-live transformation of Untogether’s “In Two”—out March 5th via Arbutus Records.
Here at Blue Hawaii, we are faced with a common problem in live electronic music—how does one play live if the music essentially exists only as a completed production? How can we do this without sampling the entire piece from start to finish (like a DJ), or having enough live musicians to recreate each part?
Most often this problem is tackled by going back into each song’s original work file and bouncing out stems—groups of tracks that make up the song as a whole (i.e. the drum group, the synth group, the bass group, fx group, etc…). These stems are played back in sync with each other and can be cue’d, looped, effected, re-arranged, and so forth—and thus the entire recording comes to life on stage, with the main vocal line sung on top, maybe some keyboard or drum parts also played.
Raphaelle and Agor.
What we do is similar, except we tend to focus on only one element of the song at a time. We figure our productions are fairly complex, with lots of little reverbs, sounds, new parts, and little changes happening at unpredictable times; they are also quite light feeling, so to play them back in their entirety wouldn’t feel right in a venue filled with excited people. It’d feel kinda fake and not very challenging and creative. They are a little too complex and not heavy enough for a live/dance floor setting, where simpler/clearer is often better.
So instead of bouncing stems out of the original work file, we take very short loops from the final stereo master-the same mp3 or wav file which is available off the album to the public. These loops are chunks of audio that form the chords or textures which we structure a new, live version of each song over. We trigger these loops with MIDI controllers, and sequence parts on stage to create wholly new productions that resemble the album’s songs in their vocal melodies and lyrics, but are different in their parts and arrangement. We add vocal and synth loops on stage, run an Electribe drum machine and some deep kick drum samples, along with effects to meld the whole thing together live.
This allows for a simple and quick workflow, and positions the performance more along the lines of a DJ set. It keeps it interesting too because we get to make new arrangements for old songs off the record. Sometimes Raphaelle even writes new vocal melodies, with the same lyrics–in order to suit the new feeling of the piece. A big advantage of preforming this way is that it levels out all our songs (whether they be very ambient, more upbeat, or traditional)—they become the same tempo and textural feeling, allowing us to transition into new material, a DJ set, pumping minimal tech improv, or whatever we like. It allows some room to adjust to the kind of show we’re playing, and feels more like a live show, rather than an attempt to fully recreate the album experience—which is just way too easy to do if you are using a computer and samples in the first place.
Below is a really crappy video I just made showcasing the bones of this process for our song, “In Two”. I trigger back the main chord sample that we use for the verse (which is originally the bass/vocal part from the intro of the album version). Along with a kick drum, some effects, vocal loops and the electribe, we craft the live version of the song around that loop. You don’t see that in the video because Raphaelle isn’t around right now to sing the parts, but you should just watch us live anyway. It’s fun and can get heavy. We’re playing the PORTALS showcase at SXSW and some other shows so you should check it out if you can.
Live recording by Mechanical Forest Sound.
Oh and excuse my weird put-on accents. Screen capture videos are pretty silly.
PORTALS Traveling Showcase - Austin, TX (PORTALSXSW)
We’re beyond thrilled to announce our inclusion in this year’s Hype Hotel at SXSW (via Hype Machine). We, along with Gorilla vs. Bear, Yours Truly, YVYNYL, I Guess I’m Floating, Aquarium Drunkard, Stereogum, and Conflict of Interest, will be curating daily events with artists we adore. We hope you’ll spend the day with us and our friends whom we are honored to present: Toro Y Moi, FIDLAR, Blue Hawaii, Mac DeMarco, HAERTS, Chrome Sparks, and Monster Rally (DJ set).
PORTALS Traveling Showcase — Austin, TX (PORTALSXSW) :: March 16th, 2013 :: 12–6PM :: 21+ :: The Hype Hotel, 301 Brazos Street, Austin, TX
Get to know our lineup:
Monthly Residency: Hundred Waters (Week 3)
Hundred Waters: “Life on the Road” by drummer, Zach Tetreault
We played our first show on Friday, January 20, 2012. Just about a year ago. Since then, a large portion of our lives have been spent in the sitting position, traveling at approximately 70mph (112kph) from one city to the next. We’ve traversed over 30,000 miles across 2 continents, slept on the floors of countless stranger’s homes & have even become valued customers within the low-budget hotel industry, shelling out a cool 60 bucks for a room like it’s nothin’. Having just run the numbers to the best of my ability, it seems we’ve played roughly 147 shows since that Friday in early 2012 and we’ll play 53 more shows between now and June 5th. We still pour our hearts into every performance, we still get nervous and we definitely still make mistakes. But we love it.
As we prepare to embark upon the longest and most epic tour we’ve been on (40 shows with Alt-J and 10 with The XX), we thought it fitting to wrap up this past year (Year 1) of life in Hundred Waters via these ‘choice’ pictures we’ve gathered along the way. Most of them are not photos of us actually playing shows. Instead what you see are some of the magical moments that make this whole traveling circus routine so special to us.
To aid in this visual documentation, here are a few of the tunes that never fail to lift our spirits while on the road and find their way into our ears all too often:
“White Whispers” - The early days
Iowa
Landed a gig at a Denny’s/Flying-J truck-stop in Iowa. Played Wonderboom. Tough crowd.
The Big Apple - n00bs
SXSW ’12
Full Flex Express train tour across Canada with Skrillex, Pretty Lights, Diplo, Grimes, Tokimonsta, and Koan Sound.
Meet the dogs. Our unbelievably awesome manager, Mike (big fellow in white). Tim Smith: manager of Sonny (aka Skrillex) & co-founder of our label OWSLA. Sonny: one of the sweetest, most humble, and most talented people on earth.
Train pit stop at a Glacial Lake in the Rocky Mountains: Jasper, Alberta.
L to R: Paul, Claire (Grimes), Sonny (Skrillex), Wes (Diplo), Jen (TokiMonsta), Michael (BloodDiamonds), Will (Koan Sound), Zach & Tray.
After the train tour, we continued on our journeys together…
Hood River, OR
Asheville, NC.
Rooster vs Paul. Asheville, NC.
Burlington, VT.
Would ya just look at those reds?
Dobson, NC.
Last night of 1-month tour with Julia Holter. Columbus, OH
Dudingen, Switzerland.
Trayer. Paris.
Utrecht, Netherlands. Opening for Julianna Barwick.
Art Basel, Miami. Stage by Church of Holy Colors.
Toronto. Mod Club. January 2013.
Freelance Whales & Salt Cathedral. Wilmington, Delaware. February 1, 2013.
Check out our upcoming shows.
<3
-zach & wawas
